1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk recording/reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to a disk recording/reproducing apparatus having a disk changer, for accommodating a plurality of disks, which is capable of changing disks while a disk is being reproduced.
2. Description of the Related Art
A disk recording/reproducing apparatus capable of recording/reproducing from a plurality of disks has some form of disk changer. In general, the disk changer can be classified as one of a roulette type, a fixed magazine type, and an elevator type. The roulette-type disk changer selects a disk from a rotating tray of circularly arranged disks on a turntable similar to a roulette wheel. The fixed magazine type disk changer selects a disk by extracting one disk from a stack of disks stored in slots of a magazine cassette. The elevator-type disk changer stores disks in the same manner as the fixed magazine type but selects a disk by moving the magazine cassette up and down to then position the selected disk for reading or recording by an optical pickup.
In a disk recording/reproducing apparatus having a disk changer, a plurality of disks can be individually selected and reproduced rapidly for hours of uninterrupted play without having to manually change disks. However, when a user wishes to play an external disk which is not already loaded in the disk changer the play operation must be halted and the user must replace a disk in the disk changer with the external disk causing a break in the continuous reproduction of music or the like recorded on the disks.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional elevator-type disk recording/reproducing apparatus. In this apparatus, a disk reproducing unit 30 is positioned behind openings 33, near the front of the apparatus, and a disk storage 20 accommodating a plurality of subtrays 23a through 23f is positioned in the rear of the apparatus. The plurality of the subtrays 23a through 23f each can accommodate one disk. However, one subtray 23a among the plurality of the subtrays 23a through 23f is left unoccupied.
A clamp arm 64, to which a clamp 71 for clamping a disk to a turntable is supported, is installed in the upper portion of the disk reproducing unit 30. A main tray 31 for housing the subtrays 23a through 23f is slidably installed between the clamp 71 and the disk reproducing unit 30. The plurality of subtrays 23a through 23f are movable from the disk storage 20 to the main tray 31 by means of rollers 91 and 92.
The elevator-type disk recording/reproducing apparatus operates as follows. When reproducing a disk that is not stored in the disk storage 20, the empty subtray 23a is moved to the main tray 31 by means of the driving rollers 91 and 92 and is projected outside the body of the apparatus via the openings 33 together with the main tray 31, allowing a desired disk for reproduction to be set in the subtray 23a. Thereafter, the main tray 31 and subtray 23a are transferred to a disk reproducing position, then, the subtray 23a is lowered by a predetermined operating means to seat the disk on a turntable. Subsequently, the clamp arm 64 descends to secure the disk to the turntable with clamp 71.
In the conventional disk recording/reproducing apparatus, since at least one subtray is left unoccupied, an external disk can be accommodated in the empty subtray. However, in such a conventional disk recording/reproducing apparatus, the reproduction/recording of a disk must be stopped for replacement of a disk among those in the subtrays, since an external disk cannot be exchanged with a disk accommodated in the subtray during disk reproduction.